by Sean Patten
Didn’t really matter all that much—not like it was news that there were likely groups of hard killers prowling the streets. Still, if there was a gang out there skilled enough to drop some hardened thugs without taking a single casualty…
Here and now. Here and now.
Carlos and I took the side stairs up to the third floor, and I nearly dropped my flashlight in shock at what I saw.
“Damn,” said Carlos. “Looks like it wasn’t just the bangers who got wiped.”
The hallway ahead was packed full of bodies, these ones looking to be civilians. There were dozens along the stretch leading to the other side of the building, all dead and still.
“Looks like…,” said Carlos. “Looks like they were trying to get away or something.”
“And someone shot them as they ran.”
I could only imagine the chaos that had taken place when this all went down. The civilians had likely gathered here, waiting for the gunfight to end. But when it did, instead of leaving them alone, the shooters instead went upstairs and took out the victims as they ran for their lives.
Memories flooded back, memories of the shooting back in Hawaii. I imagined the civilians huddled together, weeping and praying, hoping they’d make it out alive. Then screams as the gunfire erupted, followed by total panic, then death.
“Hey!” said Carlos. “You there?”
“Huh?” I asked, coming back to the moment.
“Damn, man,” he said. “You looked like you went into a waking coma or something for a second.”
I shook my head and continued on.
“Just thinking of our next move. Let’s go.”
Carefully, the two of us stepped through the hall, taking care not to trip over any of the corpses.
Then, ahead, I caught sight of a body that looked strangely familiar.
Without thinking, I ran forward, moving among the limbs like I was traversing some kind of hellish obstacle course.
“Where are you going?” shouted Carlos from behind me.
I was totally focused on the body ahead. Once I reached it, I dropped to my knees, grabbed it by the shoulder, and turned it around, terrified beyond belief at what I might see.
Chapter 19
My body went cold with relief as I realized that the dead man wasn’t Steve. From a distance the handsome-faced guy had looked like a spitting image of him, complete with well-tailored clothes. But it wasn’t him.
Of course it wasn’t—Steve was holed up in the substation. Not a chance he’d be here. I worried I was beginning to lose it.
“What’s going on?” asked Carlos as he hurried over to me. “You know that guy?”
“Looked familiar,” I said. “But it’s not him.”
Carlos nodded, then looked around.
“You mind if we get to the roof? This place is starting to give me the creeps.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Good call.”
I got up, taking one last look at the man before starting back down the hallway. It was my conscience getting to me, reminding me that every minute I wasted was a minute that Steve was spending in total agony, waiting for me to get back. I needed to focus, to get my head into the game.
We went up the stairs to the tenth floor. There, a sign let us know that roof access was on the other side.
“Almost there,” I said.
“Good,” said Carlos. “’’Cause I need to take a load off.”
I wasn’t in the mood to stop. There were more bodies on the top floor—not nearly as many on the others, but still more than I wanted to see.
“Whoever did this was freaking systematic about it,” said Carlos. “Why would they go to all the trouble of killing people this high up?”
“God only knows,” I said. “Maybe they wanted to clear the place to take it over.”
“Or maybe they were some sick fucks who get off on killing innocent people.”
There was a good chance he was right. The collapse of society would almost certainly allow some of the less savory—to put it gently—among us let their mask of civility slip and give free rein to their worst impulses. Without the threat of police and jail and all of those types of punishments, it wouldn’t be long before they all went nuts.
And no doubt some of those impulses would involve killing and torturing just for fun.
“Let’s move,” I said. “The less time in this building, the better.”
“Man, I hear that,” he said. “Shit’s spooky.”
“What,” I asked. “You worried about ghosts or something?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Why, you think that’s ridiculous?”
“Don’t really believe in any of that stuff,” I said.
“Oh, right,” said Carlos. “Mr. Engineer—facts and logic and data type.”
I laughed.
“Something like that,” I said.
I meant what I’d said, but that didn’t mean Carlos didn’t have a point about the hotel being creepy as hell. With the silence and the bodies and the and gore, the place felt more like a crypt than a place to stay.
Mental images of what the scene looked like when it all went down played in my mind like the worst kind of intrusive thoughts. I imagined men and women climbing all over one another in a wild panic as they tried in vain to escape the hail of gunfire.
“Okay,” I said once we’d reached the other side of the floor. “This door should lead up.”
“I’m ready to move,” said Carlos. “Ready like you wouldn’t believe.”
I gave the door a push, the metal bar sinking in and opening the latch with a clack. The door led to a small staircase that only went up, presumably to the roof. The air was cool in the stairwell, and the lingering scent of death thankfully disappeared as soon as the door shut behind us.
Moments later I opened the door at the top of the stairs which, ass I’d expected, led to the flat concrete roof of the building.
“Damn,” said Carlos, stepping over to the edge. “Nice view.”
He wasn’t wrong. We were close to the Strip, and the city was spread out before us like the view from a postcard you’d buy in the gift shop of one of the casinos. Well, with the minor detail of all the lights being off, of course.
And the streets were calm.
“Where is everyone?” asked Carlos. “You’d think people would be out causing trouble and stuff.”
Sure enough, only a few scattered handfuls of people were here and there, none of them seeming like they were getting into any kind of bad activity. Some looked like wandering hobos, others like packs of tourists who still had no idea what was going on.
But I was more concerned about the situation happening above us. As the sun set the deep dark spread out from the high point of the sky like ink. It might’ve been reasonably quiet then, but there wasn’t a chance the calm would last once the sun went down.
“We need to move,” I said. “This place is going to turn into a madhouse once the sun sets.”
“Good call,” said Carlos. “Never thought I’d be scared of the Strip, you know?”
“I know,” I said. “And judging by the position of the sun we’ve got one, maybe two hours of sunlight at the most.”
“Then let’s stop screwing around and go,” said Carlos. “My parents are probably worried sick about me.”
If they’re still alive, I thought.
I scolded myself for thinking something so morbid, despite knowing there was a good chance it was true.
“So,” Carlos said. “What’s the plan? Bet that tiger’s still out there somewhere. Maybe he’s got some friends of his with him now.”
I let out a dry laugh.
“You know,” he went on, “if you would’ve told me yesterday that I’d be spending the next night running for my life from a damn tiger, I’d have said you were crazy.”
“Got a feeling we’re going to see worse,” I said. “But right now let’s focus on putting as much distance between us and it as possible.”
“
I’m right there with you, my man.”
I made a quick mental map of our surroundings. Our best bet would be to stay as far away from the Strip as possible. Problem with that was the Strip was named for the fact that it was a massive road—no way across it other than to walk.
I pointed towards the buildings to our left.
“We can cut across those,” I said. “Get down to one of the quieter areas, then cut across. Once we make it through downtown we can follow the road to the airport. Shouldn’t take more than a few hours if we’re lucky.”
“If we’re lucky,” said Carlos.
“And smart,” I said.
Inwardly, I was aware that Carlos was right—making it back to the O’Donnelly area would take as much luck as anything else. All it’d take would be one gang of psychos stumbling upon us and deciding that my medical supplies were worth killing over.
I shook my head. Worrying about what might happen wasn’t going to do us any good.
“Come on,” I said. “We’re wasting time.”
Carlos nodded as he formed up next to me. He dropped down to the adjoining building, helping me down once he was sure-footed. Then we made our way over to the next roof.
“You know,” he said. “I can carry some of that stuff for you. Maybe hold the first-aid kit and you worry about the backpack.”
“Nah,” I said, speaking without even thinking about it. “I got it.”
“Whatever you say.”
Carlos had proved trustworthy so far, but there wasn’t a chance I was going to let this stuff out of my sight. I’d risked my life again and again to find it, so as far as I was concerned it was glued to my palm.
I wasn’t giving it up for anything.
The two of us made our way from one rooftop to another, and after a time my lungs began to burn from the exertion. I’d long used up the calories from Hopkins’ meal, and I cursed myself for getting so distracted by the bodies in the hotel that I didn’t think to stop and search for some food.
“Man,” said Carlos as we took a brief break on one of the roofs. “I don’t know about you, J, but I’m getting hungry as hell.”
“Same,” I said. “But right now we need to stay focused on getting across the Strip. Once we’re clear, we can look around for some food.”
Part of me wanted to press on and ignore my growling stomach, but I reminded myself it wasn’t just about me—however hungry I was, Steve was almost certainly even more so. And he didn’t have the benefit of the reasonably hearty meal that Hopkins had fed me.
Before too long, Carlos and I had put a decent amount of distance between us and the main drag of the Strip. But it had gotten darker—it wasn’t going to be long before I was going to need to put my flashlight to work. And I knew that, as useful as it was, the bright beam of light would draw the worst parts of the city to us like moths to a flame.
Finally we reached the roof of what appeared to be a small store. The skylight on the roof gave us a view into the place which had, of course, been completely ransacked. A ladder led down to the alley between it and the adjacent building, and the Strip ahead of us looked reasonably clear.
But not for long.
“J,” said Carlos, putting his hand on my shoulder and pointing off into the distance. “Check it out.”
As if they’d all be given the same cue, hordes of people poured out from the casinos and hotels on the Strip. At first it was a trickle, but before too long it was hundreds, if not thousands of people.
“Holy shit,” said Carlos. “Where did they all come from?”
“Must’ve been holed up in the casinos,” I said. “Waiting for nighttime.”
“Damn, damn,” he said. “This looks bad.”
I scanned the scene. The crowds were rowdy, most of the people likely drunk and ready to take advantage of the second night’s chaos. We needed to get as far from them as possible.
“It’s only going to get worse the longer we wait,” I said. “Let’s move.”
Carlos nodded, and the two of us took down the ladder to the side of the building. Once down on the ground, I spotted something inside the store, among the debris.
“Hold on,” I said.
“What?” he asked. “Why?”
I didn’t answer, instead stepping through the previously smashed window and scanning the room for anyone who might be hiding in there.
Confident that I was alone, glass crunched under my feet as I made my way across the general store towards my goal, which was a large travel backpack with the words “Las Vegas” stitched onto the back. It wasn’t anything amazing, but it was bigger than the backpack I’d had on, giving me space to store all the medication along with the first aid kit.
“Yo, J!” shouted Carlos through the window. “We need to move!”
I took a brief moment to flex my hand, happy to not having to be carrying the first aid kit. Once I’d gotten used to my freedom of movement, I spotted something else on the ground—a pair of small packages of nuts that had been ignored in the looting.
“J!” shouted Carlos “I’m serious! We got to go, now!”
“One sec,” I said as I stepped over to the nuts and squatted down. “Gonna get—”
Before I could finish my sentence, the sound of an explosion cut through the air, followed by the chatter of automatic gunfire.
I froze in place. The evening was on.
And we were stuck right in the middle of it all.
Chapter 20
“Now, J!”
My hunger vanished at the sound of danger, but I quickly shoved the packages into my pocket before breaking into a full sprint through the store, arriving at the door from which I’d entered.
I rushed through and saw that Carlos was on the far side of the alley, his body hidden behind the corner as he poked his head out towards the street.
“You need to see this, man,” he said lowly.
Another bang sounded, followed by more gunfire. I almost didn’t want to look.
I hurried over to Carlos, putting my hand on his shoulder as I peeked out from behind him, my jaw dropping at the scene before us.
The Strip was a madhouse. Packs of looters and criminals and other people caught up in the frenzy filled the streets, approaching from both sides and sealing us in. Small orange flashes of gunfire appeared in the crowds as shooters randomly fired into the air.
But something else caught my eye. On the far end of the Strip the crowds began to split apart as if something was moving through them. Before I had a chance to wonder, I saw what was happening. A few dozen men and women, all in policemen’s uniforms, all on horseback, all armed to the teeth, were moving through the crowds.
“It’s the cavalry!” Carlos cried.
It certainly looked that way. It appeared to be the last remnants of organized police, all of them gathered for one last horseback attempt to take control of the city.
But whoever was in charge of the operation had no idea what he or she was doing—instead of taking a strategic approach, maybe holding up in a bottleneck where they could tighten the flow of people towards them, they were running straight into the fray.
There were dozens of them and hundreds, if not thousands, in the mob. The police didn’t have a chance, despite their weapons and training.
I watched the squad of horse-mounted officers move through the crowd, one of them occasionally raising his or her gun into the air and firing a warning shot. They didn’t do a damn bit of good—the hordes of people packed tightly around them, cutting them off from one another and preventing them from making anything resembling an effective formation.
And we were close enough that I could see the look of slow-dawning panic spread over their faces. It wasn’t pretty, and was going to get worse.
“They’re totally fucked!” said Carlos, seconding my sentiments.
“Yeah,” I said. “And if we don’t move, so are we.”
Carlos nodded.
“We have to cut across the Strip,” I said. “Before
it gets any worse.”
“Man,” said Carlos, his eyes still locked onto the cops ahead. “I don’t know how it can get any worse. For those poor sons of bitches, at least.”
I gave myself a moment to come up with something, but it wasn’t easy to think—between the gunfire and the explosions and the general roar of the crowd, I could barely focus.
“Come on!” said Carlos.
With surprising speed, he took off into a full sprint across the street before I had a chance to say anything.
So much for being in charge.
I watched as his big, white-clad body grew smaller and smaller as he ran across the lanes of the Strip. It was stupid as hell—we needed to move carefully and slowly, taking cover and only moving when it was safe. All it’d take would be a stray bullet to end one of us right then and there. And that was assuming we could keep in looters at bay.
But no time to do things the smart way. I gathered my nerve and ran off after him, trying not to lose sight of him among the crowd and the rapidly descending dark.
Thankfully, Carlos stopped in one of the medians, taking cover behind a palm tree. I caught up to him and dropped to my knees right at the same time another rip of automatic fire filled the air.
“Don’t run off like that!” I said, anger in my voice. “We need to stick together. Not like we can send a text if we lose each other.”
He nodded, but his attention was on the battle between the cops and the civilians up ahead. I followed his gaze, focusing my eyes just in time to watch one of the cops get yanked off his saddle and pulled into the crowd. The horse panicked, kicking its hooves up into the air and causing a wave through the crowd.
I winced at the idea of getting clocked in the face by the hoof of a spooked horse, but there was no time to dwell on that. The cops had quickly begun to panic just as surely as their horses, training their guns into the crowd and opening fire.
“Fuck!” said Carlos. “We gotta go!”
“Other side!” I shouted, glancing in the other direction and seeing the masses of people from the other side rapidly approaching where we were hiding.
It wouldn’t be long before they’d be right on top of us. I didn’t even want to think about would happen then.